He's the most successful manager in Everton’s history – and in the summer of 1987 Howard Kendall was at the peak of his trophy-winning powers...

Everton manager Howard Kendall encourages his team as his assistant Colin Harvey watches the match

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He's the most successful manager in Everton’s history – and in the summer of 1987 Howard Kendall was at the peak of his trophy-winning powers.

But while he stunned Everton supporters with his decision to quit Goodison and take up a post at the unheralded Spanish club Athletic Bilbao, the legendary Blues boss believes the seeds of his switch had been sown 12 months earlier . . . across the Park!

In an explosive introduction to his new autobiography published by De Coubertin Books yesterday, Kendall reveals the part Liverpool played in the Blues losing their greatest ever boss....

At the check-in desk of a Madrid hotel, the receptionist was looking at me with confused eyes. ‘The name’s Kendall,’ I repeated, ‘Howard Kendall.’

She shuffled through her papers once more, but couldn’t find the reservation details that I had been assured would be awaiting me.

‘Sorry, sir, we have nothing for you under that name.’

It was May 1987, and I was one of the most famous managers in English football. The Everton team that I managed had just lifted their ninth league title, their second in three seasons. Two years previously I had led the club to their first European trophy, and a year before that their fourth FA Cup.

Before moving into management I’d had a successful playing career with five different clubs, winning the League Championship with Everton in 1970.

For many years I was the youngest player to take part in an FA Cup final and some said I was the finest footballer never to play for England.

But here in the Spanish capital I was an unknown figure. No-one knew me.

My anonymity suited me, for I was here on a secret mission. Representatives of the Basque club Athletic Bilbao had arranged to meet me in the city to discuss my becoming their manager next season.

‘How about Holmes?’ I asked. Jonathan Holmes was the agent I shared with Gary Lineker and he was travelling with me to help in the negotiations.

The receptionist shook her head.

‘Fernando Ochoa?’ I asked hopefully. Fernando was the general manager of Bilbao and leading the Spanish club in the negotiations. Again she shook her head.

I was perplexed, but then I was struck with a brainwave. I said the name of an executive at Liverpool Football Club, and the receptionist smiled.

‘Here is your room key,’ she said. ‘Please enjoy your stay.’

More than a quarter of a century later I am convinced that the seeds of my move from Everton to Athletic Bilbao were sown – unbeknown to me – in autumn 1983.

It was a very difficult period for me as Everton manager. Results weren’t going our way, crowds were down, and some supporters were even calling for my dismissal.

The Everton board remained fiercely loyal towards me, but at times it was unclear whether I would still be in a job at the end of the year.

Across Stanley Park, where our neighbours and great rivals Liverpool played at Anfield, things were going rather better. The club were riding high in the league and progressing well in the European Cup, which they would win the following May in Rome.

In the second round of that competition they met the Spanish champions Athletic Bilbao and narrowly beat them over two legs in an engrossing tie. Sammy Lee, the Liverpool midfielder, later told me that the atmosphere at Bilbao’s San Mamés Stadium, known as The Cathedral, was the best he’d ever encountered.

During the course of that tie, contacts were made and friendships formed between members of Liverpool’s management and those at Bilbao.

It was unsurprising, because both clubs had good, decent people working for them; football people. They shared a passion for the game and a vision as to how it should be played.

Step forward three years and while Liverpool were still Liverpool, things had changed at Goodison and San Mamés.

Everton, under my management, had embarked upon the most successful period in its history. Bilbao, by contrast, had declined and were battling relegation for the first time. Now they were looking for a new manager, and I was top of their list.

How had all this happened?

Historically, although they utilised only Basque players, Bilbao tended to turn to overseas managers during their fallow periods.

William Garbutt, Fred Pentland and Ronnie Allen had all managed at San Mamés during lean spells and more recently Jupp Heynkes and Marcelo Bielsa have managed the club as they sought success.

Having won back-to-back titles earlier in the 1980s, the team had gone into decline.

A foreigner, or a ‘Mister’, was what they now wanted again.

Kenny Dalglish, the Liverpool player-manager, had been the top target of the Bilbao board. Kenny had won the League Championship and FA Cup double during the 1985/86 season, his first year in charge at Anfield.

Everton, under my watch, came very close – leading the FA Cup final with 33 minutes to go and finishing just two points behind Liverpool – but it was a staggering achievement by Kenny.

Yet when Fernando Ochoa contacted his friends at Liverpool to approach them over Kenny, he was given short shrift. Kenny would not be leaving Anfield under any circumstances, he was told. They did have, however, someone else who they would recommend. That person was me.

Lineker got his Barca chance while I didn’t – but I wasn’t thinking I was going to join him when I okayed his Nou Camp transfer

Gary Lineker, Everton.

IN the summer of 1986 Everton sold a striker who had just scored 40 goals in his first season for the club and finished top scorer at the World Cup.

Gary Lineker, bought for £800,000 in 1985, was offloaded for £2.8m barely 12 months later – and rumours still persist about Howard Kendall’s motives for sanctioning the sale.

In ‘Love And Marriage’ Kendall puts the record straight.

A year earlier I had nearly gone to Spain as Barcelona manager.

It was expected that Terry Venables would leave the club and I was recommended by him to be his successor.

I met a delegation from the Nou Camp in London and we agreed the terms of the move. Everton were kept informed of all the developments and the board agreed that my assistant, Colin Harvey, would succeed me.

The deal never happened. Terry decided to stay in Catalonia and I remained on Merseyside, where I led Everton to the League Championship again.

Although a move to Catalonia did not happen for me, for Gary Lineker the chance came.

Barcelona had enquired about his availability towards the end of the ultimately disappointing 1985/86 season and a deal was agreed.

He went with my blessing, because I don’t think that you can stand in a player’s way when a club like that comes calling.

Although he had scored so many goals I didn’t think his departure would cause irreparable damage to our team.

Indeed, to the contrary, I felt it might heighten the teamwork that had brought us such outstanding success a year earlier.

As it happened, that was the case.

We agreed a deal before the World Cup, not knowing Gary would return as a national hero. Had we been able to foresee that we might have been able to inflate the £2million asking fee by a million or two. Equally, had he endured a nightmare tournament I don’t doubt that Barcelona might have dropped out of the deal.

I often get asked if the sale of Gary to Barcelona was linked to my possible arrival there as manager. I can unequivocally state that is not the case. The deals and the timeframes involved were completely different.

In any case, I would never – under any circumstances – work against the interests of a football club I was managing to further my own as a manager elsewhere later on. That just wasn’t the way I worked.

* TO celebrate the publication of Love And Marriage, Howard Kendall and publishers deCoubertin Books have pledged £10,000 to be split between Everton in the Community and the Stick ‘n’ Step charities.

Liverpool-based creative design agency Milkyone Creative have produced five limited edition versions of the book, individually signed by the Blues legend.

These exclusive editions boast original cover artwork and are available only from www.decoubertin.co.uk, with a minimum of £10 from the sale of each book donated to both causes.

Books are available exclusively at www.decoubertin.co.uk and will be dispatched after the publication date of 19 August 2013. They are all priced at £25 plus P&P